Apple: Leaked source code doesn't impact security of iOS devices

For a brief moment Thursday morning, a section of iOS 9’s source code was widely available on GitHub. A few hours later, Apple issued several DMCA notices and had the repositories removed from GitHub.

As most of us know, however, once something is published on the internet, it’s nearly impossible to take it back. And that’s likely the case with iBoot, where the merely curious and those interested in discovering valuable vulnerabilities in Apple’s code have surely downloaded the source code.

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In a statement provided to ZDNet’s sister-site, CNET, Apple confirmed — and then downplayed — the leak due to its age and other security measures Apple uses to ensure a device is protected.

Here’s the statement Apple provided to CNET:

“Old source code from three years ago appears to have been leaked, but by design the security of our products doesn’t depend on the secrecy of our source code. There are many layers of hardware and software protections built in to our products, and we always encourage customers to update to the newest software releases to benefit from the latest protections.

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In other words, if you’re using a device that’s running iOS 10 or later, you’re likely fine. For those of you stuck with an iOS device that can’t update past iOS 9, you may want to think about updating to a newer device.

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